The Tape Automated Bonding (TAB) is known in the art as a method of connecting integrated chips to a substrate. In Tape Automated Bonding, a low density wiring structure, adhesively attached to a tape, is ultrasonically bonded to an integrated circuit chip. The TAB wires or lands fan out from the chip to provide a larger bonding array for connecting the chip to the next level of packaging, such as a card or module. TAB is a very inexpensive bonding method.
However, because a misbonded TAB mounted chip cannot be detached and rebonded, TAB bonded chip packages are not repairable. TAB bonded chips are not repairable because bonding and breaking that bond damages the TAB lands and may cause physical damage to the chip. Furthermore, TAB mounting expands the chip footprint, increasing the area required for each TAB mounted chip. Expanding the chip footprint clearly conflicts with the integrated circuit chip design goal of packing more circuits into smaller spaces.
Integrated circuit chips mounted on multilayer interposers are known in the art. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,730 to Geldermans et al., assigned to the assignee of this invention and incorporated herein by reference. For density, chips are usually attached to the interposer by solder balls, known as Controlled Collapsible Chip Connections (C4's) located at every chip pad. Chips thus mounted are remountable.
However, these prior art interposers are complicated and expensive. One reason that these interposers are expensive, is the way they are manufactured, i.e. one interposer layer at a time. Each subsequent layer is stacked onto previous layers until the interposer is complete. Another reason is that these prior art interposers cannot be tested at intermediate manufacturing steps. So, defects in an interposer that occur in an early layer (and, therefore, in an early stage) are not detected until the interposer is complete. Even if every interposer manufactured were to test good, these interposers would be expensive because of this complex, time consuming, manufacturing process.
However, not every interposer tests good. Instead, some interposers are defective. As noted above, defects may occur at any layer (at any stage of manufacture) to render the interposer useless. These defects, undetectable prior to completion of the entire interposer, inflate the cost of usable interposers. The yield for an interposer is the product of the yield at each individual stage. The cost of manufacturing good interposers is the cost of manufacturing all interposers divided by interposer yield. For example, an interposer with 15 manufacturing steps or stages, each with a 95% manufacturing stage yield has an overall interposer yield of (0.95).sup.15 =0.4633-46.33% yield, or less than 1 in 2 thus doubling the cost required if only good interposers were manufactured.
Besides reduced yield, these prior art multilayer interposers cannot be modified for Engineering Changes (EC) quickly. So, there is a long delay inherent in EC'ing a multichip package when the changes are in a prior art interposer's wiring. This long delay makes these prior art multilayer interposers unsuitable for any application where short EC turnaround time is critical such as in development.
Finally, although these prior art multilayer interposers provide a much denser packaging alternative to TAB mounted packaging, the wiring dimensions are relatively unstable. To provide stability, the wiring is built on a stiffener such as ceramic, which adds to the cost and complexity of the interposer. Wiring dimensions stability is important because they determine minimum feature size and feature tolerances, which in turn determines packaging density and yield. Larger features mean a larger, less dense package. Wider tolerances also mean a less dense package or, alternatively, lower yield.
It is, therefore, desirable to reduce integrated circuit chip package costs.
It is desirable to reduce multiple chip integrated circuit chip package costs.
It is desirable to reduce multiple chip integrated circuit chip interposer costs.
It is desirable to improve multiple integrated circuit chip packaging density.
It is desirable to improve integrated circuit interposer chip density.
It is desirable to improve integrated circuit chip interposer yield.
It is desirable to reduce interposer fabrication time.
It is desirable to reduce the time required to modify an interposer design.
It is desirable to improve integrated circuit chip interposer yield while reducing interposer fabrication time.
It is desirable to reduce chip interposer cost, fabrication time and improve packaging density, while improving interposer yield.